Ne dites pas bol Tian Mu!

Teaparker nous a rappelé que le nom exact du bol noir dans lequel on fait le thé vert en poudre à la manière de la dynastie Sung n'est pas Tian Mu. Ce nom est le nom d'usage au Japon (tenmoku) et provient du fait que des voyageurs japonais ont découvert ce bol chez les moines bouddhistes du Mont Tian Mu, en Chine. Pour eux, ensuite, c'est cette origine qui est resté. Mais le bol ne viennait pas du Mont Tian Mu, mais bien de la ville de Jianyang (j'avais écrit zhen yang dans un article précédent) dans le nord de la région du Fujian. Le nom précis est donc: 'hei yo Jian zan' ou bol en porcelaine noire de Jianyang.

Teaparker a insisté sur ce point de langage, car un événement l'a mis en colère cette semaine passé: il a été invité par un institut culturel de Taipei à une mise en scène de thé chinois façon dynastie Sung. Il avait bien sûr un bol noir, mais les organisateurs avaient aussi 2 autres bols de couleurs différentes. Et pour réaliser la plaquette de présentation de cette exposition, le directeur de cet institut a choisi le bol rouge! Et c'est aussi la couleur qu'a vu Teaparker lorsqu'il fut mis devant ce fait accompli. Quelques jours plus tard, je l'ai encore senti très frustré par ce choix anachronique, un bol rouge pour du thé de la dynastie Sung!

Je lui ai aussi montré des morceaux de mon bol cassé. On l'a comparé avec un bout de bol ancien en sa possession. La ressemblance nous a impressionné. La reproduction était presque parfaite. Mais les brisures et la vue de la glaise mise à nue prouve qu'il s'agit bien d'un bol récent et pas d'un original. Le seul autre indice est la sensation un peu plus rugueuse de la céramique. Son morceau ancien était un peu plus lisse, affiné avec l'âge.

A part cela, on a bu un superbe Liu An Gua Pian de 2006. Il nous a fait penser au Lung Jing, mais en plus puissant, et avec des odeurs d'écorce d'orange peu amère. Pas étonnant donc qu'on puisse le garder longtemps.

2002 Pinot Gris de Rolly Gassman

I recently opened one of my favorite wine with Chinese food: a Tokay Pinot Gris from Alsace. It can also be a very good fit with foie gras - goose or duck liver -, if it is sweet enough. In this case, even though the quality is very high with ample sweetness, I did feel it was a little too 'green', like a green oolong that will upset your stomach a little. In terms of aromas, I was overwhelmed by the lychee from the beginning through the finish. It turned from fresh to ripe in my mouth and then also brought some hazelnut notes.

And I did enjoy it together with foie gras and Chinese food! It could have been a bit sweeter for the foie gras (a vendanges tardives VT), but it was just right for the caramelized hung shao rou. On the other hand, VTs are so much more expensive than regular white. In this case, with the current heat we have, it was good to have a lighter taste.

A big thank to my parents for carrying this bottle (among others) all the way from Alsace to Taipei. And also a thought for Phyll who inspired me with his excellent blog about tea and wine.


Update: A point I forgot to mention in my tasting notes about this tokay is that it doesn't just remind me of a fruit, but of a land, Alsace. This is the typical scent of Alsace in summer during the late afternoon early evening hours. The earth and rocks give back the accumulated heat, adding their sweetness, and you feel the joy of the gathering around the dinner table. Flammkeuch (that's how I pronounce it) is about to be served and your glass is already full of Tokay. So, you've probably guessed it: this wine is the one that reminds me best of my dear home. I put it in the same category as traditional Baozhong (subtropical forest taste), which is the tea that best reminds me of my new home, Taipei.

Taiwan tea map - Carte des thés de Taiwan

Click on the map to see it bigger:


What tea is produced where?

Wen Shan: Baozhong
San Hsia: green tea (Bi luo chun, Lung Jing)
Yingge: pottery and ceramics
Emei, Beipu (and Miaoli): Oriental Beauty
Ming Jian: Si Ji Chun, Jade Oolong
the other locations are for high mountain luanze (qingxin) Oolong

Disclaimer: I placed the arrows using approximations and cross referencing with another paper map. It's not meant as a scientific work, but more to give a general idea of the major tea locations in Taiwan.

I also recommend you use Google Earth to visit these tea places.

Questions d'un lecteur

Ces questions me donnent l'occasion de vous informer que j'ai ajouter des liens à ma page de cours de gongfu cha. Comme on est en plein milieu de l'été, il peut être utile de consacrer un peu de temps libre à des révisions avant le début de la rentrée...

1. "J'ai donc gouté toutes tes références que tu m'as envoyer en oolong et baozhong.
En fait tes thés pour moi, à part le torrefié qui m'as surpris, sont trés bons, mais je t'avouerai que je suis un peu perdu. A la lecture de tes post je m'attendais à vraiment déceler des gouts differents, mais ils sont quasi identiques, avec certes des aromes plus ou moins present selon les thés."

Lors de ma première leçon avec Teaparker, il nous a fait goûter 4 eaux minérales. Un tel exercice est bon pour nous exercer à nos sens à percevoir les différences de goûts et d'odeurs. C'est un peu comme de la musculation pour les sens. Cela demande un certain entrainement, de la patience (on progresse pas à pas) et de la concentration.

2. "Alors je passe aux questions techniques. Alors tu m'as déja aiguillé en me disant que oolong à taiwan c'etait une facon de travaillé le thé en boule, mais ca reste le nom généraliste d'une famille de thé?"

Oui, on donne ce nom aux thés bleus/verts, c'est à dire aux thés semi-fermentés.

3. "Pourquoi tes thés ont l'air super concentré en arome et en gout alors que d'autres (thés achetés ailleurs) ont l'air passé...n'est ce qu'une question de qualité, de terroir, ou de famille de thé?"

Merci du compliment. Il ne s'agit pas de terroir ou de famille de thé. On trouve partout du bon thé (si on cherche). La qualité joue certainement le plus grand rôle. C'est aussi parce qu'en apprenant à mieux apprécier tous les détails d'un thé, mes exigences se sont accrues. Je me rappelle qu'au bout de quelques séances avec Teaparker nous (ses élèves) êtions unis à lui faire le même reproche: à cause de lui, nous ne trouvions plus de plaisir à boire des thés moyens. Il nous fallait de la qualité supérieure et cela signifiait aussi que nous commencions à dépenser plus pour nos thés!
Une autre raison est aussi la fraicheur de mes thés. Je fonctionne en flux tendus, et mes oolongs proviennent de récoltes récentes ou bien ont été torréfiés pour une meilleure conservation. Ils ont aussi été emballés à vide chez le fermier (pour la plupart) et ne sont rouverts que chez vous.

4. "hormis la partie technique du gong fu cha que me conseillerais tu pour déceler un peu plus les caractere de chaque thé dégusté, exemple se fixer un moment sur un thé, continuer divers tests...?

Vu que tu as plusieurs zhongs, pour mieux comprendre chaque thé, tu peux les boire deux par deux (pas trop à la fois, sinon tu te perdrais). Je te conseille aussi de 'rester' sur un thé pendant une semaine, le temps de mieux le connaitre, au lieu de passer chaque fois de l'un à l'autre.

5. "au niveau du gong fu cha, je ne maitrise pas trés bien le transvasage du gaiwan à la cruche, mon thé colle souvent au parois, alors je triche, je commence à verser d'un coté, je m'arrete et je verse de l'autre...bonne ou mauvaise pratique?"

Mauvaise pratique. Il n'est pas bon de s'arrêter quand on verse le thé hors du zhong. Pour le oolong, la première infusion peut durer un peu plus longtemps afin de donner le temps aux feuilles de se dérouler et de bien occuper tout le zhong. Un truc lors du 'transvasage' est de pencher le zhong petit à petit. Et si les feuilles sont quand même toutes d'un côté, on peut un peu secouer le zhong avec le couvercle dessus de manière à les avoir toutes disposées partout dans le zhong avant de reverser la prochaine eau bouillante.

6. "au bout de quatre ou cinq infusion j'ai toujours quelques feuilles recroquevillées... est ce normal?"

En théorie, elles doivent toutes s'ouvrir de la même manière. Il n'est pas normal d'en avoir des complètement ouvertes et d'autres pas. Revoir dans mes cours comment verser l'eau: faire danser le oolong lors de la première infusion, puis doucement verser l'eau sur tout le pourtour du zhong lors des suivantes.

7. "je n'ai pas encore gouté a tous les puer's mais se degustent-t-ils de la même
façon?"

Le puerh est plus fort en goût que le oolong. J'en mettrais moins ou bien je réduirais la durée d'infusion. A toi de voir comment tu les préfères. Pour verser l'eau bouillante sur les feuilles, n'hésite pas à y aller avec force: le puerh est compressé et ses feuilles ont besoin de force pour se détacher les unes des autres.

Paint with puerh

Axel, a regular blog reader posted this astonishing account of how he used cooked pu-erh to paint wood on Yahoo! Tea-Disc Group. He also sent me the pictures of his work. You'll be able to see that he obtained a color very close to the one used for bamboo tea trays:

"Using puerh for anything else than tea drinking may seem like an odd and perhaps sacrilegious idea. I've found that it can also be used to stain wood, with very nice results. Like many other great ideas throughout history (penicillin being discovered after a forgetful lab assistant left his cheese sandwich out for too long, for instance), the idea came to me by accidental means. Having over-steeped a brew of cooked puerh and noticing how dark and opaque the liquid was, it reminded me of a product I sometimes use to dye wood. If puerh can stain a table cloth, it can certainly stain wood...here's how to do it.

For starters, you'll need some cheap, cooked puerh. The process also works with that 1972 vintage you've been saving for a special occasion, but for those on a budget while experimenting on such things, the cheaper the better. The tea doesn't have to taste great. It just has to brew up an extremely dark and concentred infusion.

I originally used a piece of cooked beeng cha that I had blindly purchased a year ago. From a taste point of view, the tea was a disaster...notes of wet dirt combined with a hint of roofing tar best describe its taste. Its aroma is similar to that of a can of coca-cola that has been left open in the sun over the weekend. I didn't pay much for this tea, so I basically got what I paid for. It was a learning experience which resulted in the loss of a customer for a local tea vendor who shall remain anonymous. Such is the price to pay for the sake of art.

To make the dye, put some cooked puerh into a container (a non-porous teapot is ideal, as this won't ruin your teapot - I use a metal teapot of the kind used in dim sum places) and pour boiling water over it until the water covers the tea. Let this sit for a few hours and then pour out the liquid through a strainer into a bottle or jar. The resulting brew is extremely concentrated and I would strongly advise against tasting it unless you wish to liquefy your internal organs. I imagine one can get similar results by boiling the puerh for about ten to twenty minutes. If the brew is not concentrated enough, you can reduce it in a pan, much like a sauce, until it thickens a bit. This will speed up the process of staining wood, although I like to use it as is.

Once your puerh wood stain is ready, you can keep it in a closed jar or bottle. I keep mine well-sealed and in the fridge, to keep it from fermenting into something really unpleasant. Just don't mistake it for Guinness on St-Patrick's day, unless, as mentioned earlier, you wish to pay a visit to your local ER.

The staining process itself is fairly straightforward. The first step is to prep the wood as usual before staining it with any water-based wood dye. Be aware that any water-based dye raises the grain of the wood. To prevent this, wet the wood after having sanded it and let it dry, then sand it again before applying the dye. You can then apply the puerh dye with a brush or cloth. Before applying another coat, let it dry out completely then polish the surface with a soft cotton cloth. The more coats you apply, the darker the wood will get. Wood dyed with puerh is brown with a light red tone, much like the tea. It pays off to be patient, because the colour only starts to really show after three or four coats. The nice thing about this process is that it gives a softer, more natural look to wood than most commercial products. It also "antiques" the wood and is very forgiving and easy to work with once you get the hang of it. It's also eco-friendly and relatively inexpensive.

The only drawback I've found is that it is not possible to varnish the stained wood with water-based acrylic varnishes. These actually discolor the stain. I finish my pieces with furniture-quality beeswax, to great results. If anyone of you tries this with solvent-based finishes (polyurethane varnish) or oils, it would be most interesting to share the results. If you ruin your mother-in-law's mahogany buffet, you're on your own and I am not legally responsible for any harm caused. If you create a masterpiece and sell it as an antique to a misguided fool, I'll accept 35% of the earnings as a gracious gift."


Here a comparison between a block of lime tree and the bamboo box in which the small xishi teapot came. The bamboo box became a reference for the color to obtain.


A bar of white pine tree before and after the treatment. Here, the wood received 8 layers of puerh paint!

Un journaliste du New York Times

m'a contacté ce weekend. Il est en train de rédiger un article sur le gongufu cha et a du tombé sur mon blog durant ses recherches. Il en a profité pour me poser des questions pour son article. Pour mes lecteurs, en exclusivité, voilà les réponses qui apparaitront un jour dans le NYT:

- Il a d'abord voulu savoir s'il est vrai que le gongfu cha fut inventé dans la "région de Chao Chiu", et quand.
Bien vu! Le gongfu cha tel qu'il est pratiqué aujourd'hui nous vient de la ville de Chaozhou, située à l'est de la région de Guangdong, près de la région de Fujian. La pratique commença vers le milieu de la dyanstie Qing (1644-1911), c'est à dire fin 18e siècle.

- Combien coûte le oolong le plus cher?
Cette année, tous les records ont été battu par un Oolong de Mei Shan (1200 mètres - pas très loin d'Ali Shan)), vainqueur d'une compétition de thé et ensuite vendu pour 2,180,000 Dollars Taiwanais les 600 grammes (50,000 euros les 600 gr!)

Ce journaliste s'occupe de la partie 'gastronomie' dans le New York Times. Il a aussi un joli blog (en anglais) qui vaut le coup de'aller voir pour faire le tour du monde culinaire devant son ordinateur.

Cette semaine s'annonce très médiatique pour mon blog: demain je vais aller donner une interview à une télé taiwanaise! Et j'apprends ce matin qu'un de mes lecteurs me fait une offre pour écrire des articles sur le thé chinois dans une revue à paraitre (scoop!). Vous en saurez plus quand cela aura abouti.

Tian Mu bowls don't fly

I always give the same advice: try, experiment. But this time I went too far. Tian Mu bowls don't fly. The shattered proof lies below. My beautiful replica of a hare's fur didn't survive it's 1,5 meters flight.


The best way to turn this loss into something positive is to look at the broken pieces. They can teach us a lot about this Zhen Yang clay. It's black and it's recent. Also, we can see how very thick the glazing is. This may not come accross very well on the pictures, so I propose, now that it's broken, to give a piece to the next people who order tea from me and who are interested in studying a fragment of such a (sic!) nice replica!

Théière pour Oolongs de haute montagne

Son nom: Da Bing Ru Yi (21 cl)

Je vous présente ma dernière acquisition en terme de théière. J'ai fini par craquer pour elle, car j'ai acheté plusieurs oolongs de haute montagne de ce printemps (Da Yu Ling, Tsui Feng, Shan Lin Shi, Ali Shan). Cette théière est vraiment idéale pour eux. Passons-là en revue:

1. Sa forme ronde convient au oolong roulé de Taiwan. Ainsi, il s'ouvrira harmonieusement.

2. Sa taille plutôt grande (20 cl) est aussi un plus, car les oolongs de haute montagne grandissent lentement, mais deviennent plus grands que les thés de plaine. Leurs grandes feuilles ont donc besoin d'espace dans la théière pour s'épanouir et diffuser toutes leurs saveurs. (Petit truc: on n'est pas obligé de la remplir au ras bord si on ne veut pas faire trop de thé).

3. La glaise zhuni est une glaise particulièrement dure et fine d'Yixing. Elle n'altère pas les saveurs, mais les restitue fidèlement.

4. Ses parois ne sont pas trop fines. Ainsi, elles conservent plus et plus longtemps la chaleur. Or, les oolongs de haute montagne, même s'ils sont peu oxidés et assez vert, ont des feuilles très résistantes et pleines de la force des montagnes. Elles ont vraiment besoin de très hautes températures pour tout donner à l'infusion.


5. Le bec verseur est assez petit et l'écoulement pas trop rapide, ce qui donne plus de longueur au thé.

6. Un filtre intérieur en forme de balle de golf: Il empêche les feuilles de boucher l'écoulement.

Vous pouvez la comparer avec la zhuni Bao Tai. Vous verrez que la Bao Tai convient parfaitement aux Baozhongs, et celle-ci aux Oolongs de haute montagne. Par exemple: l'ouverture de la Da Bing Ru Yi est plus petite, ce qui convient aux petites feuilles roulées, alors que les baozhongs aux feuilles séchées en brindilles ont besoins d'une théière à ouverture plus large. C'est pour cela aussi qu'il vaut mieux commencer par la Bao Tai si on n'en veut qu'une, car cette Da Bing Ru Yi n'est pas faite pour accueillir le baozhong. (D'un point de vue prix, la Da Bing Ru Ru Yi se situe à mi-chemin entre les théières xishi et la baotai.


2 autres petits astuces de Tea Masters:
- Habituez-vous à sentir l'odeur de la théière après l'avoir vidée de son eau bouillante. Vous pouvez alors sentir l'odeur de sa glaise et donc de la roche dont elle est faite. Une bonne théière aura donc une odeur minérale. (Les mauvaises ou les trop sales auront des odeurs de terre.)


- Pour savoir si la glaise est bien une glaise de qualité, observez sa couleur après y avoir verser de l'eau bouillante. Les bonnes théières changeront d'aspect et deviendront plus brillantes et plus foncées. Les glaises faites avec de la terre trafiquée resteront inertes.

Des lotus sacrés sur ma porcelaine

Que ce soit en couleur comme ci-dessous:

ou bien en bleu sur blanc en style de la dynastie Qing:

le lotus est une plante aquatique qu'on rencontre souvent dans les étangs à Taiwan. Sa fleur est aussi un symbole du bouddhisme. Mais elle est alors représentée plutôt comme dans la photo suivante ou vue de profil. Les porcelaines précédentes n'ont donc pas de symbolique spirituelle directe. Mais je crois qu'on ne peut pas totalement échapper à la beauté et à la sérénité qui émanent de ces lotus qu'on appelle sacrés. C'est pourquoi ces porcelaines conviennent très bien pour trouver un peu de calme intérieur durant son gongfu cha.

Toutes ces porcelaines sont peintes à la main à Yingge, Taiwan. L'artiste arrive ainsi à leur donner une force et un vivacité toute particulière (cliquez sur les photos pour les voir en grand et apprécier les détails).

Antique Tian Mu bowl links

A reader asked me today about my 'hare's fur' Tian Mu bowl. This is the appropriate english expression to desribe one of the color variations that can happen on a Tian Mu bowl. I then used these words to make a search for such bowls on google. Here are some interesting links I found:
- A piece from Taiwan's National Palace Museum,
- Wikipedia's page on Chinese porcelain (see Jian tea wares). It has a picture from the Met museum.

In another variation, the bowl can also have variations that can look like partridge feathers:
- Even if the site insist it's hare's fur!

And I also liked this article from Gotheborg's site with tips to recognize fake antique tenmoku bowls. They are very similar to what Teaparker told us.

Delicious Japanese tea sweets

Teaparker brought these fine sweets for us to enjoy this Sunday. They are made by a Taipei pastry chef who learned in Japan. I think he will soon report about it on his website. (I'll put the link when he does).
They were really delicious. Not too sweet and also not sticky like the Chinese MoaJi, but maybe not the best fit to the tea we had. We were practicing matcha in Sung Dynasty style again. This time, Teaparker brought a green tea powder called 'Wu Shang', which meand 'none above'. This self proclaimed king of matcha was really finer and more subtle than the others we've had so far. The fine bubbles on top of the Tenmoku were almost white. Such a tea is so good, I think it's better enjoyed on its own. Even though we've later had Dong Ding Oolong and old arbor Shui Xian, I still felt the matcha's aftertaste as I headed home.

Above, you can also see a small Yuan Dynasty (at least) pot that Teaparker recently purchased for my fellow student. She'll use it to store her fresh matcha. Since the old lid doesn't fit perfectly, she uses plastic foil to further wrap it when she stores it in the fridge. I asked Teaparker if he also had one for me. He asked me to come back next week to find out!

Elegant Ceramics from Yingge - Porcelaine

Three items from my latest trip to Yingge, Taiwan's ceramics capital:
Small, handpainted tea box
Petite boite à thé peinte à la main.

The trick with this kind of glazed tea box is to always keep it full. That's how tea will remain fresh. I recommend using it in conjunction (not as a substitute) to the traditional plastic bag. With the plastic bag, you can fold it so that a minimum air remains inside, and then you better place it in a bigger tea box (carton or metal). But when you prepare for gongfu cha, best is to get your leaves from such a small and beautiful ceramic box. You can then place it on your table next to the other accessories. Especially when you have guests or are making a demonstration, it shows how much you respect and value your tea leaves.

Handpainted gaiwan and its pitcher
Un zhong peint à la main et sa cruche.

Couleurs bleu/blanc sur du rouge. Mon ultime hommage à l'équipe de France. Ils ont fait bien mieux qu'on pouvait l'espérer à l'issue des 2 (3?) premiers matchs. Mais on ne peut pas grand chose contre la force des statistiques (qui donnaient l'Italie victorieuse avant le début du tournoi). J'espère que le capitaine à la retraite se mettra au gongfu cha et apprendra la sérénité et le contrôle de ses émotions. (Relire aussi mon post prescient.)

Sung Dynasty tea (960-1279)

This is one of the highest form of tea making. This technique, making tea with green tea powder in a black bowl with a bamboo wisk was invented during the Sung dynasty, but its use disappeared in China. Luckily, Japan adopted it and gave this tea the name matcha, similar to the Chinese 'Mo' (grinded) 'Cha' (tea).

What makes Sung dynasty tea so special?
For Teaparker, it's the symbiosis between aiming for the best smell and taste, as well as for the nicest display. The black Tian Mu Wan (tenmoku in Japanese) plays a central role. It's black color is most fitting the light green cream that forms on the surface on the bowl.
A Tian Mu Wan are made of black clay from Zhen Yang, Fujian. It is than glazed with a thick layer of black glaze that will help to retain the heat. One of the most fascinating thing then happened: some bowls displayed natural changes of color on the glazing. First it happened by accident, then potters learned to create these variations.


As for the tea that is used, just have a look at the prices of high quality Japanese matcha, and you'll understand that this tea is made from the finest, most tender tea buds and then processed to keep it as fresh as possible. Only Japanese matcha can be used for Sung dynasty tea. Chinese/Taiwan green tea powder is just green tea that was grinded and is not fresh/high quality enough for this method.

So, how do you make Sung dynasty tea?
1. clean your hands,
2. clean your Tian Mu bowl and the bamboo spoon with a dedicated, clean and beautiful fabric,
3. Slowly pre-heat the bowl with just boiled water and then empty the bowl,
4. Put several spoons of matcha up to the zhi kou (the height where the glaze stops on the outer walls of the bowl). Usually just a few millimeters.
5. Add some just boiled water (95 degrees Celcius +) as slowly as possible. Take the bamboo whisk and mix water and tea.
6. Repeat step 5 several times (ideally 7 times)
7. Slowly take the wisk out when a layer of foam floats on the surface. Tea is ready to drink.
8. Rinse and clean the wisk, the spoon and the bowl with hot water. Let them dry before storing them away.

The most difficult about this technique is how to handle the wisk. From your movement depends the taste of your tea. I have been learning with Teaparker recently. I was amazed at how different poorly wisked matcha (I made in my first attempts) tastes compared to the one Teaparker makes. Here are 2 links to videos of Teaparker making this tea.

Some principles for handling the whisk:
- Never stop until it's over. Foam will only happen at very high temperature. If you stop, then you loose time and your chances for success diminish,
- Don't move the whisk up and down: you would break some branches
- Try to keep more or less the same speed and the same direction,
- Use your whole body to make this happen. Think of this like a way to channel your energy into the tea bowl. A clear and happy mind will produce a good tea.
- The final result must be a thick layer of fine foam covering the whole surface. And it should be even thicker in the middle, where you took the whisk out.
- Sweating is almost garanteed.

It takes several months of practice to master this technique. Good luck!

Wu Yi tasting

Below are my tasting notes for 6 samples Blake from Yahoo!'s Tea-Disc has sent me (and 14 other participants). The 5 Wu Yi and 1 Taiwan Shui Xian samples all come from American retailers. I will keep their names quiet, because I don't want you to think I'm doing this just to criticize potential competitors. (For the curious, you can check Kim's and Kevin's tasting notes to compare with mine -and get the vendors' names). The teas are displayed in order from A to F from left to right:

Let's first start with the tools and method:

1. Warming of the competition tasting cup and bowl
2. Tea: 2-3 grams (I put one thin layer in the cup, using my sight to make the weight even)
3. Shortly boiled Volvic water in my iron tetsubin to brew all teas at the same time for 2 minutes.
4. I also use a Chinese soup spoon (plunged in hot water) to smell the tea (on the back of the spoon) and to drink a sip.
5. The dry leaves that remain come on the round white porcelain plate to be smelled.

Below a view from F, in front to A, behind.

A. Taiwan Shui Xian
Dry leaves:Rolled. Smell like fish, seaweed.
Spoon and cover smells:classic, roasted Taiwan oolong, nicely sweet
Tea soup clarity:OK
Taste:Warm, the mellow is stronger than the astringency. But a little dull.
Wet leaves:Huge hand harvested leaves. Such big leaves without buds show that these are older, lower quality leaves.
The roasting was OK and got the most out of these leaves. I almost liked it, probably because this Taiwan Oolong does taste more familiar than the Wu Yis I rarely drink.

B. Organic Wu Yi
Dry leaves:Long, but many are broken. Smell like honey, interesting complexity.
Spoon and cover smells:Pepper, astringency, reminds me of cheap raw puerh. Excessive or bad roasting
Tea soup clarity:Good: it's a little shiny
Taste:A little like red tea, sweet/sour. The tea is quite complex and tastes almost good.
Wet leaves:Machine cut. After a second brew, the leaves would disintegrate between my fingers: real organic leaves are usually stronger as only the strong leaves survive.
This tea is the only one I felt like brewing a second time (2 minutes again). The first brews had these back and forth between acidity, sweetness, fruit and honey that made it a little interesting. But there was not much more to get in the second brew.

C. Da Hong Pao

Dry leaves:Dark to green, long unbroken leaves. Light honey
Spoon and cover smells:Light honey and light sweetness
Tea soup clarity:Average
Taste:Few defects, but nothing outstanding either. There is a faint charming note of sweet honey.
Wet leaves:Uneven oxidation of the leaves. Some are red, some are green. Machine cut.
A tree that doesn't live up to its name.

D. Traditional Da Hong Pao
Dry leaves:Dark to red, long unbroken leaves. Burnt licorice
Spoon and cover smells:Pepper and cigarette butt. Charcoaled rubber. I start to feel bad already.
Tea soup clarity:Average
Taste:Horrible cigarette butt. I can feel how it irritates my stomach.
Wet leaves:Long whole leaves. I doubt they are from spring. Probably summer to be so bad.
On a positive note, you could use this tea if you have trouble digesting and are constipated. I had a nice sh.. after that. You could also prepare a cup to your best foe in the office just before his annual evaluation meeting!

E. Rou Gui

Dry leaves:open, short leaves. (Can't read my handwriting)
Spoon and cover smells:Smell like low quality lightly roasted Baozhong
Tea soup clarity:Below average
Taste:A hint of fresh oolong, not too much astringency.
Wet leaves:Machine cut. Mostly green and a little red.
Reminds me of the cheapest Dong Ding Oolong from a famous tea shop in Taipei.

F. Tieh Luo Han

Dry leaves:Smaller open leaves. Pepper smell.
Spoon and cover smells:Some sweetness. OK.
Tea soup clarity:OK
Taste:Very much like a red tea. Sweet and sour.
Wet leaves:Green and red broken leaves
This is way below Oriental Beauty/Bai Hao Oolong in terms of strength, finesse or complexity. Not bad, but really nothing to get excited about.


I didn't drink tea on Monday, so I was really thirsty for tea today (despite the 31 degrees Celcius in my living room). So, to close this tasting on a nicer note, I remembered that I have a Wu Yi Shui Xian in my selection. I tend to forget it, since it's also one that few people order. I even wonder if it's because it's so cheap (less than 0,1 USD per gram). So, I put a few gram in a competition cup and used the same water and the same brewing parameters.
The difference was striking! That's what I call roasting! A very full roast, not something that leaves the tea between two worlds green and dark. And I also realize that there is an adjective I didn't use for the 6 samples: long! This tea has a long and sweet aftertaste. Humm.
My Shui Xian is not a complex, delicate kind of tea. I would lie if I implied that. But it has strength and delivers a warm, mellow cup of honey, nuts and ripe fruit.
I was even able to make a second (equally good) and third brew (starting to fade) with 2 and 3 minutes additional brewing times.

Further, I think it's also a good time to announce that I have decided to add the tea competition accessory (1 cup with cover, 1 cup to put the tea and the display plate) in my selection. I think it's a great tool to evaluate the quality of tea and look for defects. If you have a gaiwan, you may not absolutely need it, but if you want to evaluate several teas side by side, then the best is to use the same standard tool as professionals.
It's price: 9 Euros or 10,95 USD, without transportation.

Guei Fei Cha - Concubine tea

This tea is now quite hot in demand in Taipei. A lot of tea fans are curious to try this new tea. But is this tea just a fad, or is it a longterm trend for Taiwan's oolong in general?

Let's first look at the tea leaves to understand what's new about this tea. We can first say that it is based on luanze (Qingxin) Oolong, the traditional tea tree of Dong Ding. Second, this is a summer tea, a season that is known for producing less fragrant, more bitter teas. Third, we can see that the leaves are bitten by insects. Master Zhang is not using any pesticides on this field on purpose. He's actually counting on those bites to jumpstart the fermentation of the leaves and create a sweet & sour pineapple taste.

You probably have guessed by now where his inspiration is coming from: Oriental Beauty (also called Bai Hao Oolong). That's the reason why he named this tea Concubine tea in reference to Oriental Beauty.
One of the differences with Oriental Beauty, besides location, is that the Guei Fei Cha is processed into a ball like a traditional Dong Ding Oolong.
Master Zhang is also then able to make variations on the taste of this tea using roasting. In the middle, you can see a roasted summer 2005 Guei Fei. It displays a browner color and sweeter taste than the fresh summer 2006 Guei Fei on the right. This tea was made just two days before I arrived! Difficult to taste much fresher tea!! Nevertheless, I preferred the roasted 2005 Guei Fei.

According to my tasting, Guei Fei Cha has not yet reached the quality level of the best Bai Hao I have in my selection (or I should say had, since I'm currently out of stock on Bai Hao). This explains the price difference. For me, it seems that this tea is better well roasted than just strongly oxidized. But maybe Master Zhang needs a little more time to experiment with it to take it to a higher quality level. Anyway, I think that this tea can become a good answer to the growing demand of good pesticide free, biologically grown oolong tea.

Encore un lecteur heureux!

Tellement heureux qu'il a commencé un blog, Gongfucha!

Tea farmer in Feng Huang

Recently, a reader asked me how I choose from which tea producer to buy my tea. There are thousands of farmers in Taiwan. A majority of farmers are producing low to medium quality oolongs like a commodity, for the masses, while a smaller number is focusing on high quality and are making teas for the ultimate drinking pleasure. It's quite similar to the wine industry in France in this regard: the output of high quality grand crus is dwarfed by the huge output of 'vin de table', the lowest wine quality. So this is a very good question.

Actually, in Taiwan, most retailers tend to be relatives of tea farmers. This is how most (small) businesses are still integrated here. That's why it's so important to have connections in the Chinese world. Business has a lot to do with trust, and who can you trust more than your brother or cousin?

So, being a foreigner married to a Taiwanese, I first contacted the 2 or 3 farmers with whom my wife is connected (through her best friend, a friend of her sister-in law and through her uncle). But the tea from these 3 sources went from sometimes good, but expensive, to average and even to very disappointing.

Now, my method to find a skillful tea farmer is to use my tea connections instead of my 'blood' connection. And that connection is my tea master, of course. For Oolong from Taiwan's heartland, he pointed me in the direction of Master Zhang, a rather young tea farmer. His skills are recognized in the Lugu tea association as he is one of its active members and acts as one of the judges for its tea competitions. He can taste over 300 different oolongs per day during such competitions!

This connection works also well the other way around for Master Zhang. Since he knows my teacher, he already has an idea of what kind of quality and teas I'm after. He also quickly found out that I'm very knowledgeable about tasting oolong and we wasted no time introducing the various teas he had. We just let them speak for themselves. This made the selection process a real pleasure.

One of the other important reason for driving to Lugu to meet Master Zhang is, of course, to see the actual tea fields where the tea I purchase is growing. The goal is to smell the soil, the air, to feel the environment where my tea is harvested. Like this, I can better understand what smells to look for in my cup. It also clarifies how much pesticides and fertilizer is used (little in can of classic Oolong and none for Guei Fei Cha, in case you were wondering)... On the way to his fields, we passed next to this famous lake between Dong Ding and Feng Huang:

This is the view from Dong Ding village looking at Feng Huang village, on the opposite mountain. What strikes me is that there are not that many tea plantations to be seen on the slopes of these mountains. It's mostly planted with beetle nut palm trees.

Of course, there are other ways to select Taiwanese Oolong. You could wait for the end of the spring tea competition and purchase the winning tea. This year, it reached another record: 2 million Taiwan dollars (61,000 USD) for 600 grams!

Shan Lin Shi tea plantation

This video will show you a quick take of a tea plantation in Shan Lin Shi around 4 PM on June 23, 2006. Over 1000 meter, the silence on this high mountain tea plantation was only broken by the song of a bird. The weather was partial cloudy and foggy and I could even hear thunder in the distance.

Annonce des résultats du concours de photo de thé

D'abord un grand merci à Yves, Trajan, Jean-Paul, Bertrand, Nikosan, Suzanne, Philippe, Alexandre et Lionel pour votre participation à mon petit concours de photo sur le thème du thé. Avec la France et l'Allemagne, mes deux équipes nationales, toutes les 2 qualifiées pour les demi-finales, je suis au comble de la joie et ai décidé que vous avez tous gagné des échantillons de mes Oolongs taiwanais de ce printemps 2006:

Luanze Oolong de Da Yu Ling (2200 mètres)
Luanze Oolong de Tsui Feng (2000 mètres)
Luanze Oolong de Shan Lin Shi (1650 mètres)
Jinxuan Oolong d’Ali Shan (1400 mètres)
Oolong classique de Feng Huang, Dong Ding (800 mètres)
Oolong ‘verger de montagne’ de Feng Huang (800 mètres)
Oolong Jade, Tsui Yu, de Ming Jian,
Oolong Si Ji Chun de Ming Jian,

Le nombre d'échantillons dépend du nombre de photos que j'ai retenu sur mon blog, plus une. Ainsi, pour une photo, vous recevrez 2 échantillons, pour 2 photos, 3 échantillons et 4 échantillons pour 3 photos. Renvoyez-moi un e-mail avec l'adresse où vous voulez que je vous envoie ces échantillons.

Mais que donner à notre champion Jean-Paul pour ses suberbes photos ci-dessous?



Voyant son amour pour le puerh et l'art graphique, j'ai décidé que le mieux est de lui donner en plus de 4 échantillons d'oolong, un gros échantillon (100 gr environ) de mon pu-erh cru sauvage d'YiWu de 2003 avec son emballage calligraphiée à la main:

Dernières photos du concours

Une jolie étude d'un ancien bol Tian Mu dont la texture vieillie est en harmonie avec le bois.